A Los Angeles man with a YouTube rap career is facing felony charges due to accusations that he was pimping an 18-year-old Orange County woman.
The Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force recently received notification from a young woman’s family regarding their concerns that their relative was being forced into prostitution.
The suspect believed to be responsible for the girl’s sex work, 31-year-old Angel Ortiz Diamond, uses the professional stage name “Benjiboy Staccs” in his music career.
During an undercover investigation, the authorities have come to suspect a citizen of Orange County of attempting to partake in acts of human trafficking with two girls that the man believed were teenagers.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department, while conducting an investigation, made a mock Facebook account that appeared as if it was the profile of a 16-year-old girl.
On October 19, someone online who appeared to be a man messaged the fake account. A conversation began leading to an alleged offer for the imposter teenager to work in the sex trade with the man serving as her pimp. The investigator reportedly played along and said that she had a friend who was 15 and that they were both working as prostitutes with a current pimp.
When the authorities located and responded to an online prostitution advertisement they booked an appointment and allegedly met with a woman in a hotel room that they suspect is the victim of human trafficking. The man they purport is responsible for the illegal sexual activities was arrested.
At the end of May, the Newport Beach Police Department and the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force worked together in a sting operation targeting an ad for prostitution services that they discovered online. The website where the content was hosted is reportedly notorious for containing ads for illegal prostitution.
After setting up an encounter through the ad the authorities, posing as a client, planned a meeting with the woman at a Newport Beach hotel. A 32-year-old woman showed up for the ordered date, and it is suspected that she was being forced to prostitute herself.
A Santa Rosa woman and her son were arrested on Friday for allegations that they were running a prostitution ring involving up to 150 women over a 10-year period of time. They are also suspected of using properties as brothels to employ women as sex workers.
59-year-old Fay Ruth Romesburg is an author of female-empowering erotic literature under the pseudonym F.R.R. Mallory, and she identifies herself as a feminist. She is the mother of 38-year-old David Scott Romesburg III with whom she shares a home and declared as dependent on the earnings from her writing career.
At the end of last year, Rohnert Park Police was notified by an apartment manager reporting suspicious activity leading them to believe that one of the units was being used as a brothel. One of the neighbors added to the complaint and stated that men visited the apartment regularly. The Santa Rosa Police Department had also been notified with similar information regarding a private home in their district.
According to prosecutors, 29 year-old Rico Christopher Clayton, of Carson, had allegedly recruited a woman to participate in prostitution on February 8th. He allegedly advertised her sex services online. On that same day, officers on the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force had responded to an online ad and arranged a meeting with the woman.
Clayton was allegedly seen dropping the woman off at a Fullerton motel where the meeting had been arranged with the undercover officer. Clayton had also allegedly made calls and sent text messages to the woman indicating that he was pimping her. Clayton was out on bail for another pimping charge in Los Angeles at the time.
He was charged on Monday with one felony count of pimping and pandering. He is facing sentencing enhancements for committing the crime while out on bail in addition to a previous strike conviction for burglary in 2007. If found guilty, Clayton faces up to 15 years in prison, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
According to prosecutors, two men were arraigned in Orange County Superior Court on charges of trafficking and attempted pimping of a teenage girl in Costa Mesa.
The two men, one 25 years old and the other 23 years old, also face charges for pimping a woman for sex, according to the Orange County DA office and the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force.
The two men were arrested on Saturday night in Costa Mesa on suspicion of attempting to pimp a teenage girl and a woman between May 2016 and June 2016 in an area of Costa Mesa that is known for prostitution, the statement said.
The Orange County Criminal Lawyer Blog